NORMAL
by Katie Pollock
CANBERRA YOUTH THEATRE
THE PLAYHOUSE - CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
2020
DIRECTOR Luke Rogers
SET & LIGHTING DESIGN Gillian Schwab
SOUND DESIGNER Kimmo Vennonen
CAST
McKenzie Battye-Smith
Jemma Collins
Holly Ross
Elektra Spencer
PHOTOGRAPHY Images Instantly
Normal was a Canberra Youth Theatre production
REVIEWS
"Bold and impressive... confident, authentic and at times profoundly moving... Rogers’ direction is methodical, eliciting excellent and thoroughly convincing performances from his ensemble cast, while ensuring that the pace and impact of the work keeps the audience on tenterhooks"
- Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle
"a polished, stripped back production, firmly and imaginatively directed" - Bill Stephens, Australian Arts Review
SYNOPSIS
I’ve got this thing you can see – that’s happening to my body. It’s pretty weird. It just sort of – started – See that? I can’t control it. And I don’t know what it is.
Poppy has developed a tic. A twitch. A spasm. It spreads through her body, then her group of school friends and before long, the whole town. Nobody can explain it, but as the ‘disease’ spreads, the community begins to fall apart. Who or what is to blame? And how are they going to fix it?
Normal is an urban detective story in which the investigator is a teenage girl and the body is her own. Inspired by the true story of ‘the town that caught Tourette’s’, this provocative and critically acclaimed Australian play raises questions about what it means to fit in, the viral nature of mass hysteria, and the pressures on young women fighting for agency.
In the entitled pockets of a sparkling city, what does it take for a teenage girl to fit in? What does it cost to be normal?